Fate by the book
by Proktes
Summary: AU meeting Who would want to rob a book store? And take hostages? Detective Beckett has see it for herself... because Richard Castle is there too


She isn't supposed to be here. She was just recently promoted to detective, so she should be hustling inside the precinct right now, and not standing here.

She was on her way to work, driving through the city, and keeping the radio on by habit. She wasn't really paying attention to it, but then she caught something, and she started listening with growing interest. There was a robbery in progress, which usually she wouldn't care about that much, because it wasn't her job to deal with, but the location had made it special.

Who in their right mind would want to rob a book store?

She was just about to change the station, but then something inside her clicked. The address. Oh, God, it couldn't be.

When her mom died she picked up the first book that she could find that once belonged to her, and it just so happened to be one of Richard Castle's. She finished it quickly, and went on to read some of his other works. Soon he became her favorite author, and even though she didn't have time to go to his signings, she still knew exactly when and where they were going to be.

Which is why she turned around and headed towards the store. Richard Castle is there right now, and although she only met him once personally, he was kind of important to her. And if anything happened to him, well, she wouldn't know what to do.

She keeps listening to the radio on her way there, and speeds up a little when they call in that the suspect has taken hostages. She'll kill the guy if he dares to do anything stupid.

She arrives at the store a couple minutes later, and the hostage rescue team is already there, along with the other squad cars parked on the side of the street.

She wonders if she should get involved, but she knows that they would probably just send her away, pointing out that she has no experience in hostage rescue. So she waits a little further, because that's the only thing she can do right now.

An hour later the guy surrenders, and as they lead him away in cuffs, she feels a sudden urge to go up to him and punch him in the face, because he just made her wait an hour for no reason at all, and she is probably going to get her ass handed to her for showing up late at work.

Instead she decides that if she is here, she could help a little, so maybe she could give a reason why she was so late. They give her a strange look, but agree, so she goes to take the witness' statements.

She quickly handles two, and looks around for someone else, when she sees a man chatting with the woman she first talked to. She walks up to him, and can't help but notice that he is tall, even a little taller than her in her heels, and he seems pretty muscular under the shirt he is wearing. She pushes those thoughts aside, and gently pokes his shoulder with her pen.

As he turns around, her breathing quickens, and her mouth falls open slightly. He smiles at her, and she struggles really hard to keep the fangirl inside, because it's Richard _fricking _Castle.

"Hi, Mr. Castle, I'm detective Kate Beckett and I'm here to take your statement." She sees his eyes light up a bit, and he grins.

"Nice to meet you Detective Beckett, and it is good to know that I have fans even in the police force. By the way, aren't you a little over trained to do this?"

"Well I was just passing by, and figured I could help. But I'm not here to talk about me. So could I get your statement?"

"How nice of you to just stop and help. And I really wouldn't mind talking a bit more about you"

Was he really hitting on her? She couldn't believe it. And yet, as she glanced up at him, he had a wide smile plastered on his face. Well, nothing was stopping her from having a little fun.

"Why, Mr. Castle, I'm sure you would. Now please can we just move on?"

Even while she is writing down what he tells her, she sees the intrigued look on his face, and she knows what's going to happen even before it does.

"So, now that we are done with that, could I buy you a drink and we could talk about you a little more?"

She is surprised that while he is trying to play it cool, he is slightly nervous. Looks like not everything she read in the tabloids were true.

She pulls out her business card, and hands it over with a smirk.

"Call me later, _Castle_" and with that she saunters away. Her smile widens, when from the corner of her eye she catches him just standing there with a completely shocked expression.

Oh, this is going to be the start of something good.


End file.
